October 10, 2017 | IBM i

Password Reset: How Much Does Manual IBM i Password Reset Cost?

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Password Reset: How Much Does Manual IBM i Password Reset Cost?

There’s one sure way to lower Help Desk support costs: use software that allows your users to automatically reset expired and disabled IBM i passwords without Help Desk assistance. Industry studies show that manual IBM i password resets (where users call their Help desk to reset lost, expired, or disabled passwords) are expensive in terms of lost productivity and increased Help Desk costs.

But just how expensive is it to continue using your Help Desk to manually handle password resets? Here are some significant numbers that an average IBM i shop faces when they don’t offer automated password resets.

  • Up to 50% of all Help Desk calls involve manual password resets.
  • It takes 40 minutes on average for Help Desk personnel to manually reset an IBM i user password. Resets can take much longer during off-hours (2nd & 3rd shifts or during weekend/holiday work) when fewer Help Desk staff is available.
  • An average IT Help Desk handles 2,500 manual password resets a year.
  • The average cost of a Help desk support call is $50.

All of which leads up to the real cost per year for an average IT shop to support manual password resets, which is up to 125,000 per year! That’s right. An average IT shop spends up to $125,000 every year manually resetting passwords. This number is easily calculated by using this equation:

Average cost of manually resetting IBM i passwords = Average number of manual password resets per year (2500) * Average cost of Help Desk support call ($50)

The beauty of this equation is that you can use it to calculate your organization’s IBM i manual password reset costs, simply by plugging your own numbers into the formula.

The other significant number involved with password resets is yearly average lost productivity hours. This is the average amount of time an organization spends each year waiting for user passwords to manually be reset, which can be calculated by using this equation:

Yearly average lost productivity time due to manual password resets (hours) = [Number of password resets per year (2500) * average wait time to reset a user password (40 minutes)] / 60 minutes

Given our example numbers, our yearly average lost productivity time due to manual password resets (in hours) will be 1,666 hours! Again you can plug in your own numbers to get your organization’s lost productivity hours. This number can also be converted into a cost by multiplying it by the average cost per hour for a worker at your organization.

Why your yearly cost for manual IBM i passwords matters

These numbers matter because there’s an alternative to manual IBM i passwords: automated IBM i password reset software that can significantly reduce the cost and time variables calculated here. Several IBM i third-party vendors offer affordable automated password reset software, including SEA with its iSecurity Password Reset software.

Once you know what your yearly cost and yearly lost productivity hours are because of manual IBM i password resets, you can compare those numbers against what your acquisition cost would be to purchase and install an automated password reset solution.  If the annual cost of manually resetting IBM i passwords is greater than the cost of installing and configuring automated IBM i password reset software, then you have a very good chance at cost-justify purchasing a package.

Other benefits of automated password reset software

In addition to the financial and time savings organizations receive by using automated password reset software, there are several other benefits organizations accrue when using this software including:

  • Reduced security risks –Using a secure authentication method such as two-factor authentication to confirm user identity before resetting their password, helps prevent fraudulent password disclosure or phishing schemes that can occur during manual password resets.
  • Auditing security – Automated password resets are logged and can be reported to auditors, providing audit documentation that the system is working correctly.
  • Minimum training–Users are accustomed to automated password resets from using Web-based services. Automated resets are nothing new to them. Introducing automated resets into the IBM i environment will cause little disruption because your users are pre-trained in doing their own password resets.
  • Reassignment of Help Desk staff – Automated password resets reduce the need for Help Desk personnel. This leaves you free to retrain newly-redundant Help Desk staffers for higher level assignments.

Want to find out more?

As I said, there are several vendors who provide automated IBM i password reset software. Check out SEA’s white paper on Reducing IBM i Help Desk Costs with Self Service Password Reset for a good overview of the cost savings associated with automated password resets, the benefits of automated resets, and how the technology works. If you’d like to learn more about this topic, you can also contact us at SEA and we’ll be glad to help.